Here there comes into play a fundamental principle which, in so far
as we require to understand it, can be explained in simple words.
The effect (and we might even say the _object_) of drawing the more
permeable body in between the poles, is to obtain an “easier path” by
which the lines of force may travel; but it is obvious that a longer
route through the more permeable body may at length be found less
advantageous than a shorter route through the less permeable medium.
That is to say, the more permeable body will only tend to be drawn in
to the field of force until a point is reached where (so to speak)
the way _round_ and the way _through_ are equally advantageous. We
should accordingly expect that (on our hypothesis) there would be
found cases in which the nucleus was wholly, and others in which it
was only partially, and in greater or less degree, drawn in to the
field between the centrosomes. This is precisely what is found to
occur in actual fact. Figs. 44 and 45 represent two so-called “types,”
of a phase which follows that represented in Fig. 43. According to
the usual descriptions (and in particular to Professor {179} E. B.
Wilson’s[234]), we are told that, in such a case as Fig. 44, the
“primary spindle” disappears and the centrosomes diverge to opposite
poles of the nucleus; such a condition being found in many plant-cells,
and in the cleavage-stages of many eggs. In Fig. 45, on the other hand,
the primary spindle persists, and subsequently comes to form the main
or “central” spindle; while at the same time we see the fading away
of the nuclear membrane, the breaking up of the spireme into separate
chromosomes, and an ingrowth into the nuclear area of the “astral
rays,”—all as in Fig. 46, which represents the next succeeding phase
of Fig. 45. This condition, of Fig. 46, occurs in a variety of cases;
it is well seen in the epidermal cells of the salamander, and is also
on the whole characteristic of the mode of formation of the “polar
bodies.” It is clear and obvious that the two “types” correspond to
mere differences of degree, and are such as would naturally be brought
about by differences in the relative permeabilities of the nuclear
mass and of the surrounding cytoplasm, or even by differences in the
magnitude of the former body.
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